A Russian flag seen at the entrance to the State Council of the Republic of Crimea

MOSCOW, April 25. /ITAR-TASS/. The Russian State Duma lower house of parliament on Friday passed a presidential bill on appointing the elections to legislative bodies of Russia’s two new constituent regions - Crimea and Sevastopol - on the second Sunday of September 2014.

Thus, when the bill is passed in the final reading and signed by the president, Crimea and Sevastopol will elect their legislatures - the State Council and the Legislative Assembly, respectively - on September 14, 2014, the all-nation election day.

Relevant amendments are to be made to article 7 of the law on Crimea’s accession to Russia and the formation of two new constituent regions - the republic of Crimea and the city with federal status Sevastopol.

The bill also specifies the procedure of electing the heads of these two new constituent regions. Their candidacies are to be approved by the local legislatures of the new convocation by December 2014.

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, April 17, has submitted to the State Duma (lower house of parliament) a draft law on parliamentary elections in Crimea and Sevastopol slated for September 14.

On April 11, the Crimean State Council approved a joint appeal from Crimea and Sevastopol’s Legislative Assembly to President Vladimir Putin, asking him to hold parliamentary elections not in 2015 but in September 2014.

“We ask you to support our initiative to conduct elections to the State Council of the Republic of Crimea and the Legislative Assembly of Sevastopol on the second Sunday in September 2014,” the appeal said. “Considering the promptness and scale of the measures being taken by the Russian Federation to integrate the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol into the economic, financial, credit and legal systems of the Russian Federation, we hereby state our readiness to start considering and adopting necessary legal acts to accelerate the integration of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol into the system of government of the Russian Federation,” the document said.

Electoral system in Crimea and Sevastopol

The electoral system in Crimea and Sevastopol will be ready for elections by summer, Russian Central Election Commission Chairman Vladimir Churov told ITAR-TASS.

“We are keeping up with the schedule,” he said, adding that it would take up to 240 million rubles to provide electoral commissions in Crimea and Sevastopol with the Vybory voting and communication system and another 160 million rubles will be needed for salaries to members of the electoral commission, the printing of ballots and other related costs.

“We have already filed a request for funding with the government but we have started working within the available budget or we would not have done it on time,” Churov said.

The elections in Crimea will be conducted according to a mixed system, Crimean State Council (parliament) Chairman Vladimir Konstantinov said.

“Fifty deputies will be elected on party lists and 25 in majority constituencies,” he said.

Party structures of the ruling United Russia party will be formed in Crimea by the end of May, Konstantinov said, adding that the party’s election program in Crimea would address most pressing issues such as salaries, pensions and social allowances with special attention to be paid to the fight against corruption, fascism and neo-Nazism.

United Russia General Council Secretary Sergei Neverov recalled that the founding conferences of the Crimean and Sevastopol regional branches of the party had been held on April 7.

On March 18, at the Kremlin, President Vladimir Putin, Crimean State Council Chairman Vladimir Konstantinov, Crimean Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov and Sevastopol Mayor Aleksei Chalyi signed a treaty under which “the Republic of Crimea is deemed to have been admitted to the Russian Federation.” “From the day of the Republic of Crimea’s admission to the Russian Federation, new constituent members — the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol as a city of federal importance — shall be created in the Russian Federation,” the document said.

Under the reunification treaty, the official languages of the Republic of Crimea are Russian, Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar.